ONO Academic College is a private Israeli academic institution, a registered NGO, Israel’s fastest growing institute of higher education with more than 8,000 students and with emphasis on academic excellence and a vision of inclusion and social reform in Israel.

While Israel’s severe conflicts with its Arab neighbors, particularly with the Palestinians, have received much international attention, little is known or done to address Israel’s intense internal conflicts. One such conflict is around the question of mandatory national and military service, which has created particular antagonism between Ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis, as well as with the National Religious, Arabs and Jews, Druze and Muslims, men and women, and immigrants and Israeli-born. The inequality in national service and related rights and benefits has created insurmountable barriers for entering the labor force and civic participation.

ONO has enlisted HNMCP to conduct a stakeholders’ assessment and facilitate a one-day roundtable discussions of stakeholders for students impacted by current policies in order to flesh out barriers to agreement and identify potential unexplored options that may induce the participating stakeholder to take action as a result.

Activities and Deliverables:

• HNMCP students will research the issue through varied sources, as well as conduct a stakeholder assessment to identify the major interests and alternatives of various sectors, and to select participants for the roundtable;
• Facilitate a stakeholder roundtable discussion;
• Write a concluding document containing findings and lessons learned regarding the process of the roundtable discussion and the issues that were discussed.